What It All Comes Down To

[doubled_speed]

WHO: Tommy Shepherd, OTA
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Coming Down From It All (Post House of Billy)
WHEN: The first week post event [Forward Dated]
WARNINGS: CW: Referenced sexual encounter in thread with Kyle, Referenced child abuse in thread with Kyle.


A. Keeping The Diners Supplied The Diner
"Delivery of fresh produce."

Tommy's tired. Perhaps that's why he's coming in later than normal with supplies for this meal shift. Perhaps that's why he looks frazzled and his hair is limp and he's not racing in with all speed. Clearly it's not the heavy crate loaded down with all sorts of foods from the green house, because that's never slowed him down before. But sleep after something like what they'd gone through was... Well, unlikely.

"The cyanana harvest is starting, so I'm thinking about trying to figure out how to make some sorta pudding out of it. That's a thing, right? Banana pudding or something."

He'd been enough out of it on entering that he didn't even know who it was he was talking to. Like hell he'd thought about how the kitchen help rotation was working now. Nor did he care. He was too tired from all his dreams to care.


B. Healing Power of Horticulture The Greenhouse
If there was one place that Tommy often found peace, it was the greenhouse. Today Tommy was trying his best to work there without getting too complicated with other people. For this he'd done the best thing he could do: working the mint wing. The advantage that came that the specific wing was sealed off from the rest of the greenhouse to keep it from spreading too much. Tommy moved slowly through it with a woven rush basket, humming quietly under his breath some German pop music he remembered from back home. While he moved he clipped little sprigs of mint to pass on to Glownies as a treat.

The advantage of the sealed area was that when the doors opened, Tommy knew someone was there. He could hear it. He turned to look at the door and frowned.

"Can I help you? I thought I was soloing the mint today."


C. The Solitary Island Closed to Aeon
It took a while for him to find her, but Tommy had wanted to have an excuse to get away, but he didn't want to be put into a position where his stupid brain could interrupt him. There had been someone interested after all, and so he'd raced through the city until he found her.

"Aeon," he said, offering a hand up for a high five. "You doing anything? Because if not, island time."


D. Wild Card
[Feel free to hit me up on Discord or Plurk to discuss places Tommy could get cornered. Or just have someone come to his actual home. Other options are to find him lazing by the fountain, on top of a tall building, or hiding out with the glownies which he normally does not visit.]

Comments

[kyley_b]

Kyle grins. "Sure! I'll teach you everything I learned in school, heh. IF you win. Which you won't."

This is better. This is not as good as the world they'd left, but it was better than being mostly alone on a strange planet.

"If I win, I want, uhm... You gotta tell me a story."

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, they weren't alone now, were they? Tommy had his brother, but now he had Kyle too. That was nice. But he considers it. A story, that works.

"Guess I've got a lot of heroic things I've done."

[kyley_b]

"Exactly. And, I dunno. You said I don't really know you. So this is a way to get to."

Kyle has heard all sorts of stories from Tommy, but they may not be the same.

[doubled_speed]

"I guess it is," Tommy agreed. And then he nodded to look at the guy. Time to figure it out.

"Alright. I'm done here. How can I help?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle looks at the counter. "I think we're set for now. You can clean up, if you want? Otherwise I wanna see these backwards walking skills before anybody shows up."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy nodded and started moving, quickly moving around the space to get it all cleaned up before picking back up his crate that he was transporting food with.

"Alright, let's do this."

[kyley_b]

Grinning, Kyle headed to the front of the diner and stood against one wall. "Okay, hotshot. Start here. No peeking."

[doubled_speed]

No peeking? Tommy frowned at that.

"You're kidding, right? Like, I walk backwards by looking quickly back over my shoulder from time to time," Tommy protested. This didn't seem fair. The bet hadn't said that.

[kyley_b]

"Whaaaat? For seriously? I thought you just had great spatial awareness!" He laughed again. "You realise if you hadn't told me I wouldn't have known, right?"

[doubled_speed]

Tommy sighs, looking at Kyle and frowning. Stupid mess here. He bit his lip before holding a hand out to Kyle.

"Get me something to blindfold me."

[kyley_b]

Kyle giggles and pulls his hat off. Ceremoniously, he plunks it on Tommy's head and tugs it down.

"Ta-daaaaa!"

[doubled_speed]

Tugged down, huh? Yeah, that works. Tommy offers a wide grin. There i was.

"You're creative, but I guess I knew that. Now watch and be amazed."

And with that he starts to walk confidently backwards. Ain't nothing going to stop him now.

[kyley_b]

Kyle watches, smiling. He figures if Tommy does trip, he's so fast he'll catch himself. He's literally never seen him fall over if a bad guy wasn't involved.

[doubled_speed]

Well in Tommy's defense, he doesn't trip. Sure, he has a half second of kinda sorta stumble, but it's a half-second and that's SO much time to recover from him.

That said, he just keeps going, and will until Kyle tells him to stop.

[kyley_b]

"Okay, okay! You're gonna hit the door!" Kyle says, giggling. He walks over to pull his hat off of Tommy's head.

"Alright, you win. Looks like we'll be recreating Hebrew school."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy stops the second the first okay is said. He is grinning too, offering Kyle a wink.

"I promise to try and be a good student."

[kyley_b]

Standing close, it's so very tempting to kiss him. Kyle actually feels his body lean in to do so, but he stops himself.

"You better be."

[doubled_speed]

Tommy sees the leaning, and he moves closer too, ready to meet Kyle in a kiss. He takes longer to catch himself, to notice it's being kept away. He just holds his breath.

OKay, one, two, three breaths. He's okay.

"I've got a reason to want to get an A."

[kyley_b]

"Oh yeah?"

If anyone were to enter the diner, they'd definitely think they were interrupting something.

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah. I don't want to disappoint my brother by having horrible spelling or something," Tommy shrugged.

[kyley_b]

Kyle smiles softly. "I won't let that happen. Brothers are important."

[doubled_speed]

"They are. Hey, you really have a Canadian brother, yeah?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle nods. "Yup. Sir Ike Moisha Broflovski. And my folks are still Sheila and Gerald, and they'd still probably like you."

[doubled_speed]

"God, that name is horrible," Tommy groaned. "How does he deal with a name like that? And no, they wouldn't like me. I'm a curse-laden asshole."

But he liked them. Or had liked them. he doesn't remember. Did it even count?

[kyley_b]

Kyle laughs. "It gets worse - his birth name was Peter Gintz."

His face softens. "Dude. Don't tell me what my folks would and wouldn't like, okay? That's not cool."